Signal component demultiplexing apparatus, filter apparatus, receiving apparatus, communication apparatus, and communication method

ABSTRACT

A communication apparatus, a signal component demultiplexing apparatus, and a filter apparatus for reducing a load of FFT processing in a receiver in multi-carrier communication, wherein the receiving apparatus provides a signal component demultiplexing apparatus before an FFT circuit and extracts only the required symbol series and the signal component demultiplexing apparatus has hierarchically arranged branching circuits each including a symbol delay circuit, a phase offset adjustment circuit, an adder circuit, and a subtractor circuit, one symbol string being output from the adder circuit and another symbol string being output from the subtractor circuit.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a communication apparatus(communication system), transmitter and receiver, and communicationmethod, more particularly relates to a digital communication apparatus(system) for multi-carrier modulation, a wireless transmitter (wirelesstransmitting apparatus) and a wireless receiver (wireless receivingapparatus) used in a digital communication apparatus (system), and acommunication method of the same.

More specifically, the present invention relates to a signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus for demultiplexing a multi-carrier signalmultiplexed by orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to asymbol series, a filter apparatus for extracting specific symbols from amulti-carrier signal, and a signal receiving apparatus having thesesignal component demultiplexing apparatus, filter apparatus, etc.

2. Description of the Related Art

As an example of a signal modulated by OFDM, one of a digital audiobroadcasting (DAB) system will be described.

The DAB system is known as a high quality digital audio terrestrialbroadcasting method enabling mobile reception developed by the EUREKA147 project. Progress is being made in commercialization of digitalsatellite audio broadcasting using the DAB system for the satellitebroadcasting.

As the modulation method used in such a digital communication system(apparatus), OFDM has been proposed due to its tolerance to multi-pathfading, ghosts, etc.

OFDM is a multi-carrier modulation method usually using tens to hundredsof orthogonal carriers. Each carrier is modulated by a modulation methodsuch as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) or phase shift keying(PSK).

In the DAB system etc., digital audio signals of multiple channels aretransmitted by multi-carrier communication.

FIGS. 21A and 21B are views of an example of the configuration of adigital wireless communication system used in a DAB system or the likeusing OFDM as the multi-carrier modulation method. FIGS. 21A and 21Billustrate parts of the DAB system in a simple form.

In the following explanation, the DAB system will be illustrated and theexplanation made focusing on multiplexing.

A wireless transmitting apparatus 10 of an OFDM type wirelesscommunication system illustrated in FIG. 21A has an encoder circuit 11,a symbol mapping circuit 12, a multiplexer (signal multiplexing circuit)13, a frequency interleave circuit 14, an inverse fast Fourier transform(IFFT) circuit 15, a wireless transmitter circuit 16, and an antenna 17.

An information bit stream is encoded, interleaved, and otherwiseprocessed in the encoder circuit 11, then its bits are mapped totransmission symbols in the symbol mapping circuit 12. This work isseparately carried out for every channel. In the example shown in FIG.21A, for example, 64 ksps (symbols/sec) of symbols are created perchannel.

These symbol streams are simply connected in series in the multiplexer13 to form a multiplexed symbol stream. For example, if 18 channels of64 ksps per channel are multiplexed, the transmission rate of themultiplexed symbol stream becomes 1152 ksps (=18×64 ksps).

The symbols of the multiplexed symbol stream are rearranged by frequencyinterleaving in the frequency interleave circuit 14. The symbols of eachchannel are dispersed by this work.

Next, the dispersed symbols of the symbol stream are arranged on thefrequency axis, then the symbol expressions on the frequency axis aretransformed to symbols on the time axis by the IFFT processing in theinverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) circuit 15, which are then sentfrom the transmitter circuit 16 via the antenna 17 into the air.

An example of the symbol string comprised of the six carriers formedinto a multi-carrier signal output from the transmitting apparatus 10 isillustrated in FIG. 22.

Up until now, specific symbols among a plurality of symbols (symbolseries) formed into the above multi-carrier signal have not been solelyextracted.

Therefore, we suppose the wireless signal receiver extracts the intendedsymbols or carrier components from the symbol series illustrated in FIG.22 using an existing technique.

FIG. 23 is a view of a first method for demultiplexing a multi-carriersignal.

In this method, a plurality of band pass filters having frequency bandcharacteristics of the corresponding carriers are provided. Thecorresponding symbols are extracted by these band pass filters. As suchfilters, use can be made of for example comb type filters.

However, such a method is unsuitable for demultiplexing symbols of amodulation method such as OFDM where the carriers are crammed together.Namely, with a modulation method using OFDM, a large number of carriersare crammed in a certain frequency band, therefore adjoining signalcomponents cannot be sufficiently isolated. Accordingly, each band passfilter must have a sharp frequency characteristic in order todiscriminate between carrier signals of adjoining frequencies.

For example, it is difficult to prepare various types of high precisionfilters such as comb type filters which have such sharp frequencycharacteristics. Further, this becomes considerably expensive in termsof price. Therefore, it is difficult to realize this.

FIG. 24 is a view of a second method of demultiplexing a multi-carriersignal.

In FIG. 24, a Fast Fourier transform (FFT) is applied to a signalreceived at a receiver circuit 22 in a Fast Fourier transform (FFT)circuit 23 to create a received symbol series arranged on the frequencyaxis. The symbol series is demultiplexed to separate symbols in ademultiplexer (signal demultiplexing apparatus) 29. Due to this, it ispossible to select only specific symbols.

In this method, however, even when extracting specific symbols, the fastFourier transform is applied to all symbols. Therefore, a complex FFTcircuit 23 must be provided, so the hardware configuration becomescomplex.

FIG. 25 is a schematic view of the configuration when extracting onlycarrier signal components at constant intervals. In FIG. 25, a pluralityof band pass filters having a plurality of different band passcharacteristics are provided. Signals limited in bands by the filtersare added to each other at adder circuits 28A and 28B to obtain theintended signal. In this case as well, as the band pass filters, forexample, comb type filters can be used.

However, in the same way as with the method of FIG. 23, since it is amulti-carrier method, this method also suffers from the disadvantagesthat carriers are crammed together, so the signal components cannot besufficiently isolated. Also, it becomes difficult to prepare highprecision filters having sharp frequency characteristics from the costperspective etc.

FIG. 21B is a schematic view of the configuration of a wireless signalreceiver in the DAB system illustrated in FIG. 21A.

A wireless receiving apparatus 20 of an OFDM wireless communicationsystem 1 of FIG. 21B has an antenna 21, a receiver circuit 22, a FastFourier transform (FFT) circuit 23, a symbol selection circuit 24, a bitextraction circuit 25, and a decoding circuit 26.

By transforming the frequency of the signal of the intended frequencyband received at the antenna 21 in the receiver circuit 22 andextracting only the baseband signal component, a baseband signal isobtained. The thus obtained baseband signal is expressed on the timeaxis of the signal with the information arranged on the frequency axis.Therefore, FFT processing is carried out in the FFT circuit 23 toextract subcarriers arranged on the frequency axis.

At this time, the symbols output by the FFT processing consist of thegroup of subcarriers of the signal bands received as a whole (forexample, in the present example, containing 1152 ksps worth ofinformation).

The symbol selection circuit 24 extracts the symbols from the group ofsubcarriers from the positions of the symbols of the intended channelarranged by the frequency interleaving at the transmission sideillustrated in FIG. 21A. By this, the 64 kbps of information of theintended channel is extracted.

The received bit stream is extracted from among the symbol stream of theintended channel obtained in this way in the bit extraction circuit 25to obtain the encoded bit stream, then this is decoded at the decodingcircuit 26 to obtain the information bit stream of the intended channel.

Summarizing the disadvantages to be solved by the invention, in thisway, in OFDM, multiplexing is carried out by allocating symbols ofdifferent channels to different subcarriers, but this means that thewireless receiving apparatus 20 receives a multiplexed signal of allchannels transmitted and, further, that the FFT circuit 23 extracts thesymbols of all of the channels, then the symbol selection circuit 24selects the channel. Therefore, the FFT circuit 23 performs FFTprocessing entailing computations far exceeding the amount required forthe originally required one channel's worth of information.

Namely, this means that the FFT circuit 23 performs the FFT signalprocessing for even channels which the wireless receiving apparatus 20does not desire, so there is a disadvantage in that the FFT circuit 23becomes unnecessarily large in scale.

As a method of solving this disadvantage, the present inventors haveproposed the invention disclosed in for example Japanese laid openpatent No. 2000-332722 published on Nov. 30, 2000. In the inventiondisclosed in Japanese laid open patent No. 2000-332722, circuits fordemultiplexing a symbol string for every alternate subcarrier from thesymbol series are provided in multiple stages hierarchically by abranching method.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantage by amethod different from that of the invention disclosed in Japanese laidopen patent No. 2000-332722, and to further extract only one symbol witha high efficiency.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus capable of demultiplexing a symbol series in abranching manner with a high efficiency.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a filter apparatuscapable of extracting specific symbols from a symbol series with a highefficiency.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a receivingapparatus having the signal component demultiplexing apparatus and/orfilter circuit.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide acommunication system having a receiving apparatus and a transmittingapparatus.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide acommunication method for the receiving processing and the transmittingprocessing.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provideda signal component demultiplexing apparatus for demultiplexing a certaingroup of signals from among a group of multi-carrier modulated signals(group of symbols), comprising branching circuits connected in stagesand hierarchically by a branching method, each branching circuitincluding a symbol delaying means for delaying an input group of signalsby N/2^((m+1)) symbols, a phase offset adjusting means for shifting thephase of the input group of signals by −π(k/2^(m)) radians with areference 0 Hz, an adding means for adding an output signal of thesymbol delaying means and an output signal of the phase offset adjustingmeans to calculate one symbol string alternately positioned on afrequency axis in a multiplexed signal input to a signal selecting andoutputting means, and a subtracting means for subtracting the outputsignal of the phase offset adjusting means from the output signal of thesymbol delaying means to calculate the other symbol string alternatelypositioned on the frequency axis in the multiplexed signal input to thesignal selecting and outputting means, wherein m is a parameterindicating the position of a stage of the branching circuit, N is thenumber of symbols existing within one modulation time, and k is aparameter indicating that a group of signals having a frequency offsetof a subcarrier is input with a reference 0 Hz.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provideda receiving apparatus, used in multiplex communication based onmulti-carrier modulation where subcarriers of a plurality of channelsare cyclically arranged, comprising the above signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus.

The receiving apparatus has a receiving means for receiving a group ofsignals; a signal component demultiplexing apparatus comprisingbranching circuits connected in stages and hierarchically by a branchingmethod, each branching circuit provided with a symbol delaying means fordelaying an input group of signals by N/2^((m+1)) symbols, a phaseoffset adjusting means for shifting the phase of the input group ofsignals by −π(k/2^(m)) radians with a reference 0 Hz, an adding meansfor adding an output signal of the symbol delaying means and an outputsignal of the phase offset adjusting means to calculate one symbolstring alternately positioned on a frequency axis in a multiplexedsignal input to a signal selecting and outputting means, and asubtracting means for subtracting the output signal of the phase offsetadjusting means from the output signal of the symbol delaying means tocalculate the other symbol string alternately positioned on thefrequency axis in the multiplexed signal input to the signal selectingand outputting means; an orthogonal transforming means for orthogonallytransforming the group of signals demultiplexed at the signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus; and a decoding means for decoding theorthogonally transformed information.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provideda communication apparatus having a transmitting apparatus and the abovereceiving apparatus in multiplex communication based on multi-carriermodulation where subcarriers of a plurality of channels are cyclicallyarranged.

The transmitting apparatus of the communication apparatus has anencoding means for independently encoding information of a plurality ofchannels, a signal point arranging means for arranging signal points bymodulating the encoded information based on a predetermined modulationmethod, a signal multiplexing means for multiplexing the plurality ofsignal point-arranged signals cyclically on a time axis, an inverseorthogonal transforming means for inversely orthogonally transformingthe multiplexed signal, and a transmitting means for transmitting theorthogonally transformed information.

The receiving apparatus of the communication apparatus has the samecomponents as the above receiving apparatus, that is, a receiving meansfor receiving the transmitted group of signals, a signal componentdemultiplexing means for selecting and demultiplexing the received groupof signals, an orthogonal transforming means for orthogonallytransforming the selected and demultiplexed signal, and a decoding meansfor decoding the orthogonally transformed information.

The signal component demultiplexing means has the above configuration.

Preferably, the signal multiplexing means in the transmitting apparatusmultiplexes the plurality of signal point-arranged signals whileshifting the frequency for every channel at predetermined subcarriers.

More preferably, the modulation method in the signal point arrangingmeans in the transmitting apparatus uses orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing (OFDM).

Still more preferably, the inverse orthogonal transform processing meansin the transmitting apparatus performs inverse Fourier transformprocessing, and the orthogonal transform processing means in thereceiver performs Fourier transform processing.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provideda communication apparatus used in multiplex communication based onmulti-carrier modulation where subcarriers of a plurality of channelsare cyclically arranged, comprising a receiving means for receiving agroup of signals; a signal component demultiplexing apparatus comprisingbranching circuits connected in stages and hierarchically by a branchingmethod, each branching circuit provided with a symbol delaying means fordelaying an input group of signals by N/2^((m+1)) symbols, a phaseoffset adjusting means for shifting the phase of the input group ofsignals by −π(k/2^(m)) radians with a reference 0 Hz, an adding meansfor adding an output signal of the symbol delaying means and an outputsignal of the phase offset adjusting means to calculate one symbolstring alternately positioned on a frequency axis in a multiplexedsignal input to a signal selecting and outputting means, and asubtracting means for subtracting the output signal of the phase offsetadjusting means from the output signal of the symbol delaying means tocalculate the other symbol string alternately positioned on thefrequency axis in the multiplexed signal input to the signal selectingand outputting means; a signal selecting means for selecting andoutputting at least one group of symbols of predetermined subcarriersfrom among the symbol strings demultiplexed at the signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus; a frequency offset compensating means forcompensating for frequency offset of at least one group of symbolsselected and output by the signal selecting means; two orthogonaltransforming means for orthogonally transforming output signals of thefrequency offset compensating means; and a decoding means for decodingthe orthogonally transformed signal.

Preferably, the frequency offset compensating means has a frequencyoffset compensation signal generating means for outputting a complexsine wave signal for the frequency offset compensation, a multiplyingmeans for multiplying the group of signals and the complex sine wavesignal output from the frequency offset compensation signal generatingmeans, and a rearranging means for rearranging symbols as the result ofmultiplication in the multiplying means along a frequency axis.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provideda communication apparatus having a transmitting apparatus and areceiving apparatus of the fourth aspect of the invention used inmultiplex communication based on multi-carrier modulation wheresubcarriers of a plurality of channels are cyclically arranged.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provideda receiving apparatus used in multiplex communication based onmulti-carrier modulation where subcarriers of a plurality of channelsare cyclically arranged, provided with a receiving means for receiving agroup of signals; a signal component demultiplexing apparatus fordemultiplexing the received group of signals configured by branchingcircuits connected in stages and hierarchically by a branching method,each branching circuit including a symbol delaying means for delaying aninput group of signals by N/2^((m+1)) symbols, a phase offset adjustingmeans for shifting the phase of the input group of signals by−π(k/2^(m)) radians, an adding means for adding an output signal of thesymbol delaying means and an output signal of the phase offset adjustingmeans to calculate one symbol string alternately positioned on afrequency axis in a multiplexed signal input to a signal selecting andoutputting means, and a subtracting means for subtracting the outputsignal of the phase offset adjusting means from the output signal of thesymbol delaying means to calculate the other symbol string alternatelypositioned on the frequency axis in the multiplexed signal input to thesignal selecting and outputting means; a frequency offset compensatingmeans for compensating for frequency offset of at least one group ofsymbols selected and output by the signal selecting means; twoorthogonal transforming means for orthogonally transforming outputsignals of the frequency offset compensating means; and a decoding meansfor decoding the orthogonally transformed signals.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a communication apparatus and the above receiving apparatusused in multiplex communication based on multi-carrier modulation wheresubcarriers of a plurality of channels are cyclically arranged.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a filter apparatus for extracting a specific signal from agroup of multi-carrier modulated signals, including a signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus comprising branching circuits connected instages and hierarchically by a branching method, each branching circuitincluding a symbol delaying means for delaying an input group of signalsby N/2^((m+1)) symbols, a phase offset adjusting means for shifting thephase of the input group of signals by −π(k/2^(m)) radians with areference 0 Hz, an adding means for adding an output signal of thesymbol delaying means and an output signal of the phase offset adjustingmeans to calculate one symbol string alternately positioned on afrequency axis in a multiplexed signal input to a signal selecting andoutputting means, and a subtracting means for subtracting the outputsignal of the phase offset adjusting means from the output signal of thesymbol delaying means to calculate the other symbol string alternatelypositioned on the frequency axis in the multiplexed signal input to thesignal selecting and outputting means; a signal selecting means forselecting and outputting a group of symbols of a specific subcarrierfrom among the symbol strings demultiplexed at the signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus; and a frequency offset compensating means forcompensating for frequency offset of the group of symbols selected andoutput by the signal selecting means.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provideda receiving apparatus used in multiplex communication based onmulti-carrier modulation where subcarriers of a plurality of channelsare cyclically arranged, including a receiving means for receiving agroup of multi-carrier modulated signals; the above filter apparatus forextracting a specific signal from the group of multi-carrier modulatedsignals received at the receiving means; an orthogonal transformingmeans for orthogonally transforming the signal extracted at the filterapparatus; and a decoding means for decoding the orthogonallytransformed signal.

According to a 10th aspect of the present invention, there is provided afilter apparatus for extracting a specific signal from a group ofmulti-carrier modulated signals, provided with a subcarrier selectingmeans for selecting a subcarrier, at least one signal selecting meansfor selecting and outputting a specific group of signals from among theinput group of signals in accordance with the selected subcarrier, and afrequency offset compensating means for compensating the frequencyoffset of a signal selected by the signal selecting means.

According to an 11th aspect of the present invention, there is provideda receiving apparatus used in multiplex communication based onmulti-carrier modulation where subcarriers of a plurality of channelsare cyclically arranged, provided with a receiving means for receiving agroup of multi-carrier modulated signals, the above filter apparatus forextracting a specific signal from the group of multi-carrier modulatedsignals received at the receiving means, an orthogonal transformingmeans for orthogonally transforming the signal extracted at the filterapparatus, and a decoding means for decoding the orthogonallytransformed signal.

According to a 12th aspect of the present invention, there is provided afilter apparatus for extracting a specific signal from a group ofmulti-carrier modulated signals, including a pass subcarrier selectionsignal outputting means for outputting a complex sine wave signal inaccordance with a channel to be selected, a multiplying means formultiplying a complex sine wave signal output from the pass subcarrierselection signal outputting means and the input group of signals, atleast one signal component demultiplexing means for selecting a specificgroup of signals from the results of multiplication in the multiplyingmeans, and a symbol rearranging means for rearranging the output of thesignal component demultiplexing apparatus on the frequency axis.

According to a 13th aspect of the present invention, there is provided areceiving apparatus used in multiplex communication based onmulti-carrier modulation where subcarriers of a plurality of channelsare cyclically arranged, including a receiving means for receiving agroup of multi-carrier modulated signals, the above filter apparatus forextracting a specific signal from the group of multi-carrier modulatedsignals received at the receiving means, an orthogonal transformingmeans for orthogonally transforming the signal extracted at the filterapparatus, and a decoding means for decoding the orthogonallytransformed signal.

According to a 14th aspect of the present invention, there is provided areceiving apparatus used in multiplex communication based onmulti-carrier modulation where a plurality-of channels of subcarriersare cyclically arranged, provided with a receiving means for receiving agroup of multi-carrier modulated signals; a switching means forswitching the input group of signals; a buffer means for holding thegroup of multi-carrier modulated signals received at the receivingmeans; a filter apparatus connected after the switching means and forselecting and outputting a specific group of signals from the inputgroup of signals; an orthogonal transforming means for orthogonallytransforming the signals extracted at the filter apparatus; and adecoding means for decoding the orthogonally transformed signals,wherein the switching means outputs one symbol's worth of the group ofsignals to the filter apparatus, and the buffer means holds the inputone symbol's worth of the group of signals during that time andtransmits the group of signals held at the buffer means via theswitching means to the filter apparatus after the end of transmittingthe signals to the filter apparatus and the filter apparatus selects andoutputs only a designated subcarrier from the group of signals input viathe switching means.

As the filter apparatus, use can be made of the above various filterapparatuses.

According to a 15th aspect of the present invention, there is provided areceiving apparatus used in multiplex communication based onmulti-carrier modulation where a plurality of channels of thesubcarriers are cyclically arranged, provided with a receiving means forreceiving a group of multi-carrier modulated signals; a first filterapparatus for selecting and outputting a group of signals of even numbercarriers from a group of multi-carrier modulated signals received at thereceiving means; a second filter apparatus for selecting and outputtinga group of signals of odd number carriers from a group of multi-carriermodulated signals received at the receiving means; a buffer means forholding the output group of signals of the second filter apparatus; aswitching means for switching the output group of signals of the firstfilter apparatus; an orthogonal transforming means connected after theswitching means and orthogonally transforming the switched outputsignals; and a decoding means for decoding the orthogonally transformedsignals, wherein the switching means transmits the output signals of thefirst filter apparatus to the orthogonal transforming means andtransmits the group of signals held at the buffer means via theswitching means to the orthogonal transforming means after the end oftransmitting the signals to the orthogonal transforming means.

As the filter apparatus, use can be made of the above various filterapparatuses.

According to a 16th aspect of the present invention, there is provided acommunication method comprising an encoding and transmitting step ofindependently encoding information of a plurality of channels, arrangingsignal points by modulating the encoded information based on apredetermined modulation method, multiplexing the plurality of signalpoint-arranged signals cyclically on a time axis, inversely orthogonallytransforming the multiplexed signal, and transmitting the orthogonallytransformed information and a receiving and decoding step of receivingthe transmitted signal, selecting and outputting only the signal of anintended channel from among the received multiplexed signal after theorthogonal transformation, orthogonally transforming the selected andoutput signal, and decoding the orthogonally transformed information,wherein the signal selection processing in the receiving step comprisesgiving a delay of N/2^((m+1)) symbols, shifting the phase by exactlyπ(k/2^(m)) radians, and performing branched and in stages the procedureof adding the symbol delayed signal and the phase shifted signal tocalculate one symbol string alternately located on the frequency axis inthe input multiplexed signal or subtracting the phase shifted signalfrom the symbol delayed signal to calculate the other symbol stringalternately located on the frequency axis in the input multiplexedsignal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above objects and features of the present invention will be moreapparent from the following description of the preferred embodimentsgiven with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1A and 1B are views of the configuration of a communicationsystem, a transmitting apparatus, and a receiving apparatus of thepresent invention and a digital wireless communication system used forexample for a DAB system using OFDM as a multi-carrier modulation methodaccording to an embodiment of a communication method, in which

FIG. 1A is a view of the configuration of the transmitting apparatus ofan OFDM wireless communication system and

FIG. 1B is a view of the configuration of the receiving apparatus of anOFDM wireless communication system;

FIGS. 2A to 2C are graphs showing processing of the transmittingapparatus illustrated in FIG. 1A, in which,

FIG. 2A shows symbol streams independent for each channel,

FIG. 2B is a schematic view of the configuration of a multiplexerillustrated in FIG. 1A, and

FIG. 2C is a graph showing a multi-carrier modulated signal;

FIG. 3 is a graph showing an arrangement of subcarriers of a pluralityof channels modulated by the transmitting apparatus of FIG. 1A;

FIG. 4 is a view of the configuration of a signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1B;

FIG. 5 is a view of the configuration of a branching circuit configuringpart of the signal component demultiplexing apparatus illustrated inFIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a view of an aspect of a symbol delay circuit illustrated inFIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a view of an embodiment of a phase offset adjustment circuitillustrated in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a view of the configuration of a receiving apparatus accordingto a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a view of the configuration of a frequency offset compensationand/or elimination circuit illustrated in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a view of the configuration of a receiving apparatusaccording to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a schematic view of the configuration of a receivingapparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a view of the configuration of a first embodiment of a filterapparatus shown in FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a view of the configuration of a second embodiment of thefilter apparatus of FIG. 11;

FIG. 14 is a view of the configuration of a filter and decimationcircuit illustrated in FIG. 13;

FIG. 15 is a view of the configuration of a third embodiment of thefilter apparatus illustrated in FIG. 11;

FIG. 16 is a view of the configuration of a fourth embodiment of thefilter apparatus illustrated in FIG. 11;

FIG. 17 is a view of the configuration of the filter and decimationcircuit illustrated in FIG. 16;

FIG. 18 is a view of the configuration of a fifth embodiment of thefilter apparatus illustrated in FIG. 11;

FIG. 19 is a view of the configuration of the receiving apparatus of afifth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 20 is a view of the configuration of the receiving apparatus of asixth embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 21A and 21B are views of examples of the configuration of thedigital wireless communication system using OFDM applied to the DABsystem or the like as the multi-carrier modulation method, in which,

FIG. 21A is a view of the configuration of the transmitting apparatusand

FIG. 21B is a view of the configuration of the receiving apparatus;

FIG. 22 is a graph showing an example of symbol strings formed into amulti-carrier signal output from the transmitting apparatus of FIG. 21A;

FIG. 23 is a graph showing a first method for demultiplexing amulti-carrier signal of the related art;

FIG. 24 is a view of the configuration of a receiving apparatus showinga second method for demultiplexing a multi-carrier signal of the relatedart; and

FIG. 25 is a graph showing extraction of carriers of a fixed period ofthe related art.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Preferred embodiments of the communication apparatus (communicationsystem), transmitting apparatus (transmitter) and receiving apparatus(receiver), and communication method of the present invention will beexplained by referring to the attached drawings.

In the following embodiments, a wireless communication system will bedescribed as the communication system, but the present invention is notlimited to a wireless communication system and can also be applied to awired communication system. However, in the following embodiments, thecommunication system will be illustrated using an orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) method suitable for a wirelesscommunication system, for example, the DAB system.

First Embodiment of Communication Apparatus

A first embodiment of the communication system, transmitting apparatus,receiving apparatus, and communication method of the present inventionwill be explained next by referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, FIGS. 2A to 2C,and FIG. 3.

FIGS. 1A and 1B are views of the configuration of a digital wirelesscommunication system using OFDM as the multi-carrier modulation methodas a first embodiment of the communication system, transmittingapparatus, receiving apparatus, and communication method of the presentinvention, in which FIG. 1A is a view of the configuration of atransmitting apparatus 30 of an OFDM wireless communication system, andFIG. 1B is a view of the configuration of a receiving apparatus 40 ofthe OFDM wireless communication system.

The transmitting apparatus 30 and the receiving apparatus 40 configurean OFDM wireless communication system.

Transmitting Apparatus (Transmitter) 30

The transmitting apparatus (transmitter) 30 will be explained first.

The transmitting apparatus 30 of the OFDM wireless communication systemillustrated in FIG. 1A has a first channel encoder circuit 31 ₁ and afirst channel symbol mapping circuit 32 ₁, a second channel encodercircuit 31 ₂ and a second channel symbol mapping circuit 32 ₂, . . . ,and an Mth channel encoder circuit 31 _(M) and an Mth channel symbolmapping circuit 32 _(M). This example shows the case where informationbit streams of M number of channels are encoded.

The transmitting apparatus 30 further has a multiplexer (signalmultiplexing circuit) 34, a scrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, andwindow processing circuit 36, a transmitter circuit 38, and an antenna39.

The transmitting apparatus 30 has one set of the multiplexer 34,scrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, and window processing circuit 36,and transmitter circuit 38 with respect to the plurality of encodercircuits 31 ₁ to 31 _(M) and the plurality of symbol mapping circuits 32₁ to 32 _(M). The same number of encoder circuits 31 and symbol mappingcircuits 32 are provided as the number of channels.

The encoding, interleaving, and other processing are independentlycarried out in the encoder circuits 31 ₁ to 31 _(M) for the independentinformation bit streams of channel 1 to channel M.

A concrete example of the encoding in the encoder circuits 31 ₁ to 31_(M) will be explained next. Where an OFDM wireless communication systemis applied to the transmission of an audio signal of for example the DABsystem, since the bit signals of the information bit streams are audiosignals, the encoder circuits 31 ₁ to 31 _(M) encode audio signals. Theencoder circuits 31 ₁ to 31 _(M) also interleave the signals accordingto need.

The encoded bit signals of the channels created at the encoder circuits31 ₁ to 31 _(M) are mapped to transmission symbols in the symbol mappingcircuits 32 ₁ to 32 _(M), whereby the symbol streams are created.

The symbol mapping circuits 32 ₁ to 32 _(M) can apply various types ofmodulation methods used for OFDM. As such modulation methods,multi-value QAM, PSK, various other types of modulation methods can beapplied.

In this way, the symbol mapping circuits 32 ₁ to 32 _(M), as illustratedin FIG. 2A, create independent symbol streams for each channel.

The symbol streams for the plurality of channels are multiplexed at themultiplexer 34 to create a multiplexed symbol stream. The multiplexer 34has the switch circuit illustrated in FIG. 2B. Due to the multiplexingof the multiplexer 34, the symbols of the plurality of channelsillustrated in FIG. 2A become the multiplexed symbol stream comprised ofthe symbols of the plurality of channels arranged on the frequency axisas illustrated in FIG. 2C.

The multiplexed symbol stream multiplexed at the multiplexer 34 isscrambled by random phase shifting (RPS), random orthogonal transform(ROT), etc. in the scrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, and windowprocessing circuit 36.

The scrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, and window processing circuit36 transforms the frequency domain multiplexed symbol stream to amultiplexed symbol stream of the time domain by an inverse Fourier fasttransform (IFFT).

Further, the addition of the guard time and the window processing areapplied to it in the scrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, and windowprocessing circuit 36.

The scrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, and window processing circuit36 is shown as a single means for scrambling, inverse Fast Fouriertransform (IFFT), guard time processing, window processing, etc.explained later. This processing may also be processed separately byindividual circuits or individual means.

The scrambling, guard time processing and the window processing in thescrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, and window processing circuit 36are not indispensable to the present invention. However, if the signalis scrambled, the privacy (secrecy) of the communication is raised.

As a representative example of the orthogonal transformation, IFFT wasillustrated, but it is also possible to apply other orthogonaltransforms, for example, inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT), inplace of IFFT in the scrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, and windowprocessing circuit 36.

From the above description, the scrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, andwindow processing circuit 36 is a circuit or means for applying anorthogonal transform.

The output symbols of the scrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, andwindow processing circuit 36 are convoluted with the high frequencysignal in the transmitter circuit 38 and to be transformed to theintended frequency band, then transmitted into the air via the antenna39.

Next, an explanation will be made of the configuration of an internalportion of the multiplexer 34 and the arrangement of the symbols of thechannels created by this multiplexing method by referring to FIGS. 2A to2C.

FIGS. 2A to 2C are views showing a basic concept of the multiplexedtransmission in the multiplexer 34 illustrated in FIG. 1.

The multiplexer 34 illustrated in FIG. 1A is basically configured as theswitching circuit illustrated in FIG. 2B.

FIG. 2A shows the symbol streams of channels multiplexed at themultiplexer 34. Here, four channels from channel 1 (CH1) to channel 4(CH4) are illustrated. The symbol streams of the channels areindividually inserted in the multiplexer 34.

FIG. 2B is a view showing the concept of the processing in themultiplexer 34. The input symbol streams of the channels are cyclicallyswitched and the symbols arranged so that the symbols of each channelcyclically appear. The multiplexed symbol stream is shown in FIG. 2C.

In this example, the case of multiplexing a maximum of four channels istaken as an example, so the symbols of each channel appear at a cycle of4, but the maximum number of channels multiplexed is not limited tothis. It is also possible to set the number at 2^(n) (n=1, 2, 3, 4, . .. ) for any whole number n. The cycle at which the symbols of eachchannel appear in this case becomes 2^(n) or the same as the maximumnumber of channels multiplexed.

When the multiplexing in the multiplexer 34 is the processing of 2²channels, when the number of the channels actually used forcommunication is smaller than the maximum number of channelsmultiplexed, a null symbol having an amplitude of “0 (zero)” is insertedas a symbol of an unused channel for the cyclic multiplexing in themultiplexer 34.

FIG. 3 is a view of the arrangement of the subcarriers of a plurality ofchannels.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, the case where there are fourchannels and performing OFDM processing with a subcarrier interval of 4kHz for every channel, that is, the case of the 250 μs=¼ kHz formodulation of one symbol, is illustrated. While the interval betweensubcarriers of the multiplexed signal is 4 kHz, the channel 1 to channel4 cyclically appear on the frequency axis in units of subcarriers,therefore the subcarrier of each channel appears at intervals of 16kHz=4×4 kHz.

The symbol f_(c) in FIG. 3 indicates a carrier (carrier) frequency(center frequency of a band signal).

In the embodiment of the present invention, in multiplexed communicationby multi-carrier modulation, subcarriers of a plurality of channels arecyclically arranged. This is to facilitate the modulation of a largenumber of symbols and further to facilitate channel demultiplexing in achannel selection circuit 43 in the receiving apparatus 40 explainedlater.

First Embodiment of Receiving Apparatus

The receiving apparatus 40 of the OFDM wireless communication systemillustrated in FIG. 1B will be explained next.

In this embodiment, similar to the transmitting apparatus 30, the casewhere there are four multiplexed channels and performing OFDM processingwith a subcarrier interval of 4 kHz for every channel, that is, the caseof the 250 μs=¼ kHz for modulation of one symbol, is illustrated.Further, for convenience of the explanation, a case where the signalband of the multiplexed signal is 1024 kHz and there are 256 subcarriersis illustrated. This corresponds to the case where there are 64 (=256/4)subcarriers per channel.

The receiving apparatus 40 has a receiving antenna 41, a high frequencyreceiver circuit 42, a signal component demultiplexing apparatus(demultiplexer or channel selection circuit) 43, an FFT and/ordescrambling means 44, a bit extraction circuit 45, and a decodingcircuit 46.

The signal transmitted from the transmitting apparatus 30 of the OFDMwireless communication system is received at the receiving antenna 41and down converted to the baseband area in the high frequency receivercircuit 42. Further, it is converted to a digital signal at a notillustrated A/D converter and input from a connection line 202 to thesignal component demultiplexing apparatus 43.

The signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 receives as inputsignals of channel 1 to channel 4 arranged on the frequency axis interms of expression on the time axis.

The signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 demultiplexes a signalfor every plurality of channels inverse to the processing of thedemultiplexer 34 in the transmitting apparatus 30.

The detailed circuit configuration and processing method of this signalcomponent demultiplexing apparatus 43 will be explained later byreferring to FIG. 4 to FIG. 7.

The number of symbols input from the high frequency receiver circuit 42to the signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 is 256 permodulation time (an over sample is not considered here forsimplification), but the number of he subcarriers of the intendedchannel is ¼, therefore the channel selection circuit 43 performsdecimation on the frequency axis and outputs 64 (=256/4) symbols. Due tothis, the number of symbols of the FFT processing in the FFT and/ordescrambling means 44 is decreased to ¼.

The output symbols of the signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43are input via a signal line 204 to the FFT and/or descrambling means 44.

The FFT and/or descrambling means 44 applies a fast Fourier transform(FFT) inverse to the IFFT (inverse fast Fourier transform) in thescrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, and window processing circuit 36 inthe transmitting apparatus 30 to extract the symbol strings arranged onthe frequency axis.

The signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 selects and extractsthe symbols of intended channel and applies them to the FFT and/ordescrambling means 44. Therefore, the symbols extracted by the FFTprocessing do not include the symbols of channels other than theintended channel. Namely, the processing in the processing means 44 needonly be the FFT processing having the minimum number of points requiredfor receiving the intended channel. As a result, the FFT processingcircuit in the FFT and/or descrambling means 44 becomes small in scale.

The symbol stream of the intended channel extracted in this way issubjected to processing corresponding to the random phase shifting,random orthogonal transform processing, and other processing in thescrambling, IFFT, guard time adding, and window processing circuit 36,descrambled in the transmitting apparatus 30, and then input through thesignal line 206 to the bit extraction circuit 45.

The bit extraction circuit 45 extracts the bits in accordance with themodulation method by which the symbols were modulated and applies theencoded bit stream to the decoding circuit 46. As such a modulationmethod, various modulation methods such as the QPSK, 8 PSK, and 16 QAMapplied in OFDM can be applied.

The decoding circuit 46 extracts the information bit stream bydeinterleaving and decoding reverse to the encoding and the interleavingcarried out in the encoder circuits to 31 ₁ to 31 _(M) of the pluralityof channels in the transmitting apparatus.

By providing the signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 in areceiving apparatus 40 receiving signals of the symbol strings of alarge number of subcarriers, it becomes possible to perform theprocessing after lowering (decimating) the sample rates in the FFT anddescrambling means 44, bit extraction circuit 45, and decoding circuit46 to that of the intended channel and it becomes possible to greatlyreduce amounts of processing of the circuits 45 to 46 after the FFT anddescrambling means 44 to for example (1/number of multiplexed channels).

Particularly, since the signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 isprovided in front of the FFT and descrambling means 44 and the amount ofdata of the FFT processing in the FFT and descrambling means 44 isdecreased, the memory capacity for the FFT processing becomes small.This contributes a large degree to the reduction of scale of thereceiving apparatus 40. Further, the FFT processing time in the FFTand/or descrambling means 44 can be shortened.

The subcarrier of each channel is arranged over the entire frequencyband of the system. Therefore when the present embodiment is applied toa wireless communication system with a large number of multiplexedchannels like the DAB system, a large frequency diversity effect can beexpected. By this, it becomes possible to suppress deterioration of thequality of service due to fading.

Signal Component Demultiplexing Apparatus 43

An embodiment of the signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 shownin FIG. 1B will be explained next by referring to FIG. 4 to FIG. 7.

FIG. 4 is a view of the configuration of the signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus 43.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of a branching circuit forming part of thesignal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 illustrated in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a view of an example of a symbol delay circuit 43 aillustrated in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a view of an example of a phase offset adjustment circuit 43 billustrated in FIG. 5.

In the present embodiment, a case where there are subcarriers of 2³channels=8 channels C0 to C7 will be explained.

The signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 illustrated in FIG. 4has one first stage branching circuit 431, two second stage branchingcircuits 432 ₁ and 432 ₂, and four third stage branching circuits 433 ₁to 433 ₄. The circuit configuration of the signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus 43 is designed so that the branching circuits431:432 ₁, 432 ₂:433 ₁ to 433 ₄ for sequentially branching the symbolsfan out in the form of a power of 2 (or hierarchically like a hierarchy(pyramid) in the form of a power of 2).

The branching circuit is significant in the extraction of the symbolstrings alternately branched to two systems for every subcarrier whenthe symbol strings are input.

It is possible to configure the signal component demultiplexingapparatus 43 by combining individual branching circuits 431, 432 ₁, 432₂, and 433 ₁ to 433 ₄ as illustrated in FIG. 4. It is also possible toconfigure these branching circuits by one digital signal processor(DSP). Below, a description will be made of a case where the branchingcircuits are individually provided and then combined.

The meanings of the symbols in FIG. 4 will be explained next.

The symbol N indicates the number of sample points per modulation timeof the symbol series output from the high frequency receiver circuit 42and received at the signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43.

The symbol K (capital letter) indicates the number of symbols to bedemultiplexed in the branching circuit of each stage of the inside ofthe signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43. The first stagebranching circuit 431 demultiplexes the symbols to two symbol strings,so K=2 in that case. The second stage branching circuits 432 _(M) and432 ₂ demultiplex the symbols to four symbol strings, so K=4. The thirdstage branching circuits 433 ₁ to 433 ₄ demultiplex the symbols to eightsymbol strings, so K=8.

The symbol m indicates the position of the stage of the branchingcircuit. The first stage m is designated as 0.

The symbol k (small letter) is a parameter indicating how manysubcarriers' worth of frequency offset are possessed by a group ofsignals input to the branching circuit as compared with a reference 0Hz.

Each branching circuit can be expressed by using the parameters (m, k).The concrete meanings thereof will be explained by referring to FIG. 5.

The signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 demultiplexes amulti-carrier digital signal (multi-carrier multiplex signal) of thebaseband area output from the high frequency receiver circuit 42 intounits of subcarriers.

The symbol strings received at the high frequency receiver circuit 42are cyclically arranged, so the signal component demultiplexingapparatus 43 demultiplexes the received signal to 2^(c) at intervals of2^(c) carriers. c is any integer. 2^(c) becomes equal to 2, 4, 8, 16, .. .

FIG. 5 shows a general circuit configuration of the branching circuitillustrated in FIG. 4.

The branching circuit is configured by a symbol delay circuit 43 a, aphase offset adjustment circuit 43 b, an adder circuit 43 c, and asubtractor circuit 43 d.

m stages of symbol delay circuits 43 a have a memory capacity of thenumber of symbols input to the symbol delay circuits 43 a and delay theinput symbol series by exactly the number of symbols N/(2^((m+1))). Thenumber m of stages is made 0 for the first stage. The symbol delaycircuits 43 a delay the N symbols in one modulation time by (2^((m+1)))symbols.

The symbol delay circuits 43 a can be configured by for example afirst-in first-out (FIFO) memory, usual random access memory, or thelike.

The amounts of the delays of the symbol delay circuits 43 a for m=0 tom=3 are illustrated in FIG. 6.

When a symbol series of eight channels C0 to C7 is input to the firststage branching circuit 431 illustrated in FIG. 5 from the highfrequency receiver circuit 42, since m=0 and 2^((m+1))=2, the symboldelay circuit 43 a of the first stage branching circuit 431 delays thesymbol by exactly a half of the number of symbols N.

Similarly, each of the symbol delay circuits 43 a in the second stagebranching circuits 432 ₁ and 432 ₂ has a memory capacity of a half ofthe symbol delay circuit 43 a of the first stage branching circuit 431and delays the symbols by exactly the number of symbols N/4.

Each of the symbol delay circuits 43 a in the third stage branchingcircuits 433 ₁ to 433 ₄ has a memory capacity of ¼ of the symbol delaycircuit 43 a of the first stage branching circuit 431 and delays thesymbols by exactly the number of symbols N/8.

In each branching circuit of the different stages, the number of thesymbols output becomes half of the number of the input symbols. This isequivalent to decimation. The number of symbols input to a later stagebranching circuit becomes half of the number of symbols input to aformer stage branching circuit. Also, the memory capacity of the symboldelay circuit 43 a becomes half of that of the former stage to thelatter stage.

The m stages of phase offset adjustment circuits 43 b shift the phasesof the input symbols (offset the phase) by exactly −Π(k/(2^(m))(radians).

As illustrated in FIG. 3, there is a frequency offset with a reference 0Hz due to the group of subcarriers. Therefore, the phase offsetadjustment circuit 43 b shifts the phase for adjusting the rotation ofthe phase occurring due to this offset. The amount of phase shift is anangle of an amount in accordance with k (small letter) showing thefrequency offset of the amount of subcarriers with a reference 0 Hz andthe number of stages m, that is, −Π(k/(2^(m)) (radians).

The states of phase shift of the phase offset adjustment circuit 43 bfor various parameters m and k are illustrated in FIG. 7.

The phase offset adjustment circuit 43 b in the first stage branchingcircuit 431 does not rotate the phase since the parameters are m=0 and k(small letter)=0.

The phase offset adjustment circuit 43 b in the second stage branchingcircuit 432 ₁ does not rotate the phase in the same way as the phaseoffset adjustment circuit 43 b in the first stage branching circuit 431since the parameters are m=1 and k=1.

However, the phase offset adjustment circuit 43 b of the second stagebranching circuit 432 ₂ rotates the phase by exactly −Π/2 (radian) sincethe parameters are m=1 and k (small letter)=1. This phase rotation meansthat the I-axis and the Q-axis are switched and the polarities areinverted as illustrated. The rotation of the phase of the symbols isachieved just by inverting the polarity of the signal or the switchingof the I-axis and the Q-axis at the time of a multiple of Π/2.

The phase offset adjustment circuit 43 b of each of the third stagebranching circuits 433 ₁ to 433 ₄ shifts the phase as illustrated forthe parameters m=2 and k (small letter)=1 to 3. It does not shift thephase when k=0.

In this way, the phase shift by the phase offset adjustment circuit 43 bin a branching circuit can be realized by the inversion of the polarity,addition and subtraction, and multiplication by a coefficient.

The operation of the branching circuit illustrated in FIG. 5 will beexplained next.

The branching circuit is a circuit for alternately demultiplexing theinput signal and decimating the symbol strings on the frequency axis.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, when the signal strings (group of subcarriers)of the subcarriers C0, C1, C2, C3, to C7 of eight channels are input tothe first stage branching circuit 431, if the symbols delayed by exactlythe number of symbols (N/2) in the symbol delay circuit 43 a and thesymbol string not shifted in phase in the phase offset adjustmentcircuit 43 b since k=0 are added at the adder circuit 43 c, only thesymbol strings of the subcarriers C0, C2, C4, and C6 are demultiplexedand extracted.

If the subtractor circuit 43 d subtracts the symbol string not shiftedin phase in the phase offset adjustment circuit 43 b from the symbolsdelayed by exactly the number of symbols N/2 in the symbol delay circuit43 a, only the symbol strings of the subcarriers C1, C3, C5 and C7 aredemultiplexed and extracted. In this way, the first stage branchingcircuit 431 demultiplexes the symbol series for every input alternatesubcarrier.

The demultiplexed symbol series is decimated to half the resolution onthe frequency axis, so the number of the output symbols becomes N/2symbols for both outputs.

When the subcarriers C0, C2, C4, and C6 are input to the second stagebranching circuit 432 ₁, if the symbols delayed in the symbol delaycircuit 43 a by exactly the number of symbols N/4 and the symbol stringnot rotated in phase in the phase offset adjustment circuit 43 b sincek=0 are added at the adder circuit 43 c, the symbol series of thesubcarriers C0 and C4 is extracted.

If the subtractor circuit 43 d of the branching circuit 432 ₁ subtractsthe symbol string not rotated in phase in the phase offset adjustmentcircuit 43 b from the symbols delayed by exactly the number of symbolsN/4 in the symbol delay circuit 43 a, the symbol series of thesubcarriers C2 and C67 is extracted.

In this way, the second stage branching circuit 431 ₁ also alternatelydemultiplexes the input subcarriers and outputs the symbol series. Thedemultiplexed symbol series becomes half the resolution on the frequencyaxis and is decimated.

Note that the memory capacity of the symbol delay circuit 43 a in thesecond stage branching circuit 432 ₁ is half of the memory capacity ofthe symbol delay circuit 43 a in the first stage branching circuit 431.

When the subcarriers C1, C3, C5, and C7 are input to the second stagebranching circuit 432 ₂, if the symbols delayed by exactly N/4 (samplingtime) in the symbol delay circuit 43 a and the symbol string shifted inphase by exactly −Π/2 (radian) in the phase offset adjustment circuit 43b since k=1 and m=1 are added at the adder circuit 43 c, the symbolseries of the subcarriers C1 and C5 are extracted.

If the subtractor circuit 43 d of the branching circuit 432 ₁ subtractsthe symbol string shifted in phase by exactly −Π/2 (radian) in the phaseoffset adjustment circuit 43 b from the symbols delayed by exactly N/4in the symbol delay circuit 43 a, the symbol series of the subcarriersC3 and C7 is extracted.

In this way, the second stage branching circuit 431 ₂ also extracts thesymbol series obtained by alternately demultiplexing the inputsubcarriers. The demultiplexed symbol series becomes half the resolutionon the frequency axis and is decimated.

Note that the memory capacity of the symbol delay circuit 43 a in asecond stage branching circuit 432 ₂ is half of the memory capacity ofthe symbol delay circuit 43 a in the first stage branching circuit 431.

The third stage branching circuits 433 ₁ to 433 ₄ also demultiplex anddecimate the symbols.

As a result, finally the symbols of the channels C0, C4, C2, C6, C1, C5,C3, and C7 are demultiplexed and output from the output lines of thethird stage branching circuits 433 ₁ to 433 ₄.

These symbols demultiplexed to the symbols for every subcarrier arecorrected for their frequency offsets through for example a frequencyoffset compensation circuit (frequency offset compensating and/oreliminating means) explained later by referring to FIG. 8, and thenapplied to the FFT and/or descrambling means 44 illustrated in FIG. 1B.The operation after the FFT and/or descrambling means 44 was explainedbefore.

The FFT and/or descrambling means 44 receives as input a signal reducedin resolution on the frequency axis, so the circuit configuration of theFFT and/or descrambling means 44 becomes simple.

According to the signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 configuredby combining branching circuits hierarchically in this way, the symbolsare alternately demultiplexed for every input subcarrier at each stageand, at the same time, the resolutions of the signal components on thefrequency axis can be successively lowered (decimated) to ½.

The branching circuits configuring the units of the signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus 43 basically have the same circuitconfigurations except that the memory capacities of the symbol delaycircuits 43 a successively become halved from the first stage toward thesecond stage and the third stage and that the amounts of phase shift inthe phase offset adjustment circuits 43 b are made different.Accordingly, the configuration of the signal component demultiplexingapparatus 43 combining the branching circuits having a simpleconfiguration is simple. Further, the decimation is carried out in unitsof 1/(power of 2). Therefore, even a multi-carrier signal comprised of alarge number of modulated subcarriers becomes simple in circuitconfiguration.

The above embodiment was illustrated with respect to an 8-symbol string,but demultiplexing of any of an 8-symbol string, 16-symbol string,32-symbol string, etc. is possible. No matter what the demultiplexing,it can be realized according to a method similar to the above. Further,needless to say, demultiplexing to a 2-symbol string and a 4-symbolstring is also possible.

Second Embodiment of Receiving Apparatus

FIG. 8 is a view of the configuration of a receiving apparatus 40Aaccording to a second embodiment of the present invention.

The receiving apparatus 40A illustrated in FIG. 8 receives amulti-carrier signal transmitted from the transmitting apparatus 30illustrated in FIG. 1A in the same way as the receiving apparatus 40illustrated in FIG. 1B.

The receiving apparatus 40A has a signal component demultiplexingapparatus 43, a signal selection circuit 47, and two frequency offsetcompensation circuits 48A and 48B.

In this embodiment, the example where two frequency offset compensationcircuits 48A and 48B are provided is illustrated, but a greater numberof frequency offset compensation circuits can be provided in parallel.

After the frequency offset compensation circuits 48A and 48B, a numberof sets of the FFT and/or descrambling means 44, bit extraction circuit45, decoding circuit 46, etc. illustrated in FIG. 1B equal to the numberof the frequency offset compensation circuits, that is, two in thepresent embodiment, are provided.

The signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 can be configured byhierarchically arranged branching circuits similar to those illustratedin FIG. 4. Accordingly, the signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43gives signal components obtained by demultiplexing the signal componentsin units of subcarriers in 2^(c) ways (note, c is any integer).

The signal selection circuit 47 selects and outputs the symbols of theintended subcarrier from among the signal components demultiplexed atthe signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43. As apparent from theillustration of FIG. 4, to which group of subcarriers the output of afinal stage branching circuit of the signal component demultiplexingapparatus 43 corresponds is determined uniquely, so the selection of thesymbols in the signal selection circuit 47 is easy. In this example, thesignal selection circuit 47 selects and outputs two symbols, but thenumber of symbols selected in the signal selection circuit 47 can be setto 1 or any greater number as well.

Since the signals of the group of subcarriers selected at the signalselection circuit 47 have the frequency offsets as illustrated in FIG.3, the frequency offset compensation circuits 48A and 48B compensate forthem.

FIG. 9 is a view of an example of the circuit configuration of thefrequency offset compensation circuits 48A and 48B.

Each of the frequency offset compensation circuits 48A and 48B has amultiplier 481, a gyrator (oscillator) 482, and a symbol rearrangementcircuit 483.

The signals input to the multiplier 481 have frequency offsets differentin a plus direction shown below with a reference 0 Hz.

exp(j2Π(k/N)i+Πk)  (1)

In order to eliminate this offset, the gyrator 482 outputs the signal ofthe complex sine wave conjugate with the offset shown below to themultiplier 481. In this way, the gyrator 482 is a signal generationdevice for generating the following complex component signal.

exp(−j2Π(k/N)i+Πk)  (2)

The multiplier 481 multiplies the symbols selected at the signalselection circuit 47 and the complex sine wave signal from the gyrator482 to convert the frequency and eliminate the offset component.

The symbol rearrangement circuit 483 switches the first half and thesecond half of the results of the frequency conversion and outputs theresults thereof.

In the present embodiment, before the FFT processing in the FFT and/ordescrambling means 44 of FIG. 1B, the number of symbols to be processedin two ways in the present embodiment is reduced, therefore theconfiguration of the FFT circuit becomes simple, and the processingspeed is improved.

Namely, according to the present embodiment, the number of symbolshandled in the FFT and/or descrambling means becomes half of that ofFIG. 1B explained above.

When the number of symbols is represented by N, the number of gatesconfiguring the FFT circuit becomes a number of gates proportional to(logN). Accordingly, if the number of symbols input to the FFT circuitbecomes small, the number of gates of the FFT circuit becomes extremelysmall.

When comparing the number of gates of FFT in the FFT and/or descramblingmeans 44 and the sum of the numbers of gates of the two FFT circuits ofthe FFT and/or descrambling means in the receiving apparatus illustratedin FIG. 8, the sum of the numbers of gates of the two FFT circuits ofthe FFT and/or descrambling means of the present embodiment becomessmaller. This means that the circuit configuration becomes simpler inthe case where two FFT and/or descrambling means are provided than thecase of one FFT and/or descrambling means 44 illustrated in FIG. 1B.Further, the FFT circuit having the simple configuration can raise theoperation speed. Accordingly, if the receiving apparatus 40A of FIG. 8is used, there are the advantages that the entire circuit configurationbecomes simple and the operation speed is improved.

Note that, the number of the groups of subcarriers selected in thesignal selection circuit 47 is not limited to two. Just one group ofsubcarriers or a plurality of groups of subcarriers more than two mayalso be selected.

Third Embodiment of Receiving Apparatus

FIG. 10 is a view of the configuration of a receiving apparatus 40Baccording to a third embodiment of the present invention.

The receiving apparatus 40B illustrated in FIG. 10 receives amulti-carrier signal transmitted from the transmitting apparatus 30illustrated in FIG. 1A in the same way as the receiving apparatus 40illustrated in FIG. 1B or in the same way as the receiving apparatus 40Aillustrated in FIG. 8.

The receiving apparatus 40B has a high frequency receiver circuit 42, asignal component demultiplexing apparatus 43, and two frequency offsetcompensation circuits 48A and 48B.

In this embodiment, the example where two frequency offset compensationcircuits 48A and 48B are provided is illustrated, but a greater numberof frequency offset compensation circuits may also be provided inparallel.

After the frequency offset compensation circuits 48A and 48B, a numberof sets of the FFT and/or descrambling means 44, bit extraction circuit45, decoding circuit 46, etc. illustrated in FIG. 1B equal to the numberof the frequency offset compensation circuits, that is, two in thepresent embodiment, are provided.

The signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 is provided with forexample a first stage branching circuit 431, a second stage branchingcircuit 432 ₁, and third stage branching circuits 433 ₁ and 433 ₂illustrated in FIG. 4. As a result, the signal component demultiplexingapparatus 43 demultiplexes the group of subcarriers C0, C4, C2, and C6and the group of subcarriers C1, C5, C3, and C7.

Since the signals of the groups of subcarriers demultiplexed at thesignal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 have frequency offsets asillustrated in FIG. 3, the frequency offset compensation circuits 48Aand 48B compensate for them.

The frequency offset compensation circuits 48A and 48B were explained inthe second embodiment. Namely, an example of the circuit configurationof the frequency offset compensation circuits 48A and 48B wasillustrated in FIG. 9, and the operation thereof was explained above, sothe explanation will be omitted.

The FFT and/or descrambling means 44A and 44B perform the FFT processingetc. for the group of subcarriers C0, C4, C2, and C6 and the group ofsubcarriers C1, C5, C3, and C7 compensated for frequency offset at thefrequency offset compensation circuits 48A and 48B.

The number of symbols handled in the FFT and/or descrambling means 44Aand 44B becomes half of that of FIG. 1B explained above. When the numberof symbols is represented by N, the number of gates configuring the FFTcircuit becomes the number of gates proportional to (logN). Accordingly,if the number of symbols input to the FFT circuit becomes small, thenumber of gates of the FFT circuit becomes extremely small. Whencomparing the number of gates of the FFT in the FFT and/or descramblingmeans 44 and the sum of the numbers of gates of two FFT circuits of theFFT and/or descrambling means 44A and 44B illustrated in FIG. 10, thesum of the numbers of gates of the two FFT circuits of the FFT and/ordescrambling means 44A and 44B becomes smaller. This means that thecircuit configuration becomes simpler in the case where two FFT and/ordescrambling means 44A and 44B are provided than the case of one FFTand/or descrambling means 44 illustrated in FIG. 1B. Further, the FFTcircuit having the simple configuration can raise the operation speed.

Accordingly, if the receiving apparatus 40B of FIG. 10 is used, thereare the advantages that the entire circuit configuration becomes simple,and also the operation speed is improved.

In the above example, the description was made of the case where twosets of frequency offset compensation circuits and FFT and/ordescrambling means 44A and 44B were provided, but any power of 2 ofthese may also be provided in parallel.

Fourth Embodiment of Receiving Apparatus

FIG. 11 is a schematic view of the configuration of a receivingapparatus 40C of a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

The receiving apparatus 40C demultiplexes and decodes a multi-carriersignal transmitted from the transmitting apparatus 30 of FIG. 1A in thesame way as the receiving apparatuses 40, 40A and 40B of the first tothird embodiments.

The receiving apparatus 40C has a receiving antenna 41, a high frequencyreceiver circuit 42, a filter apparatus 49, and an FFT and/ordescrambling means 44.

The circuits after the FFT and/or descrambling means 44 are similar tothose of FIG. 1B.

Explaining the difference between the receiving apparatus 40Cillustrated in FIG. 11 and the receiving apparatuses 40, 40A, and 40B,the receiving apparatus 40C does not extract a plurality of symbolseries by using the signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 as inthe receiving apparatuses 40, 40A, and 40B, but extracts only the signalcomponents of one intended group of subcarriers by the filter apparatus49 and processes the result thereof in the circuits after the FFT and/ordescrambling means 44.

The high frequency receiver circuit 42 converts the frequency of thehigh frequency signal received at the receiving antenna 41 to thebaseband area as explained above and converts the signal converted infrequency to the baseband area from an analog signal to a digital signal(9-symbol string).

The filter apparatus 49 receives as its inputs the digital symbolstrings from the high frequency receiver circuit 42, filters the same inunits of subcarriers, and extracts only the intended group ofsubcarriers. The filter apparatus 49 outputs only the minimum number ofsamples required for expressing the group of subcarriers to be output.As a result, a great decimation on the frequency axis is realized.

The difference between the signal component demultiplexing apparatus(branching circuit) and the filter apparatus will be explained next. Thesignal component demultiplexing apparatus receives as its input onegroup of signals and outputs two groups of signals demultiplexed fromthe one group of signals. Contrarily to this, the filter apparatusreceives as its input one group of signals and selects and outputs onegroup of signals of the specific frequency band.

The circuits after the FFT and/or descrambling means 44 perform theprocessing in the same way as those explained by referring to thecircuits of the receiving apparatus 40 of FIG. 1B etc.

First Embodiment of Filter Apparatus

FIG. 12 is an example of the circuit of a first embodiment of the filterapparatus shown in FIG. 11.

The filter apparatus 49 illustrated in FIG. 12 is configured by a signalcomponent demultiplexing apparatus (demultiplexer) 491, a symbol groupselection circuit 492, and a frequency offset compensation circuit(frequency offset compensation and/or elimination circuit) 493.

The configuration of the filter apparatus 49 resembles the circuitconfiguration of FIG. 8, that is, the signal component demultiplexingapparatus 43, signal selection circuit 47, and frequency offsetcompensation and/or elimination circuits 48A and 48B. The filterapparatus 49 substantially performs equivalent processes to those ofthese circuits 43, 47, 48A, and 48B of FIG. 8.

The signal component demultiplexing apparatus 491 is configured by acombination of the branching circuits illustrated in FIG. 4 in the sameway as the signal component demultiplexing apparatus 43 of FIG. 8.

The symbol group selection circuit 492 is similar to the signalselection circuit 47 of FIG. 8.

The frequency offset compensation and/or elimination circuit 493 isconfigured in the same way as the frequency offset compensation and/orelimination circuits 48A and 48B illustrated in FIG. 9.

The signal component demultiplexing apparatus 491 demultiplexes thesymbols at the intervals of the intended subcarriers for the symbolstrings output from the high frequency receiver circuit 42.

The frequency offset compensation and/or elimination circuit (frequencyoffset compensation circuit) 493 is configured as illustrated in FIG. 9,converts the frequency of the input symbols (signal) to the group ofsubcarriers with a reference 0 Hz, and eliminates the frequency offset.

The FFT and/or descrambling means 44 of FIG. 11 performs the FFTprocessing for only the selected symbols, so the number of points of theDFT can be kept small, and the circuit configuration of the FFT and/ordescrambling means 44 becomes simple.

Second Embodiment of Filter Apparatus

FIG. 13 is an example of the circuit of the second embodiment of thefilter apparatus of FIG. 11.

The filter apparatus of the second embodiment is a filter apparatus forbranching the received group of subcarriers to odd number subcarriersand even number subcarriers.

The filter apparatus 49A of the second embodiment has a subcarrierselection circuit 494, a filter and decimation circuit 495 and thefrequency offset compensation and/or elimination circuit 493.

FIG. 14 is a view of an example of the circuit configuration of thefilter and decimation circuit 495 illustrated in FIG. 13.

The filter and decimation circuit 495 is configured by a symbol delaycircuit 495 a, a phase offset adjustment circuit 495 b, and an addercircuit 495 c.

The circuit configuration of the filter and decimation circuit 495resembles one unit of the branching circuit of the signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus 43 illustrated in FIG. 5. Namely, the symboldelay circuit 495 a corresponds to the symbol delay circuit 43 a, thephase offset adjustment circuit 495 b corresponds to the phase offsetadjustment circuit 43 b, and the adder circuit 495 c corresponds to theadder circuit 43 c. Note that the filter and decimation circuit 495 isnot provided with the subtractor circuit 43 d. The reason for this isthat both of the even number subcarriers and the odd number subcarriersare not required in the filter and decimation circuit 495 unlike thebranching circuit illustrated in FIG. 5, and the output of only one issufficient.

The symbol delay circuit 495 a delays the input subcarriers C0 to C7 byexactly the amount of the points determined by the parameters N and m,that is, N/(2^((m+1))), in advance. In the present embodiment, m=0, sothe delay of the symbol delay circuit 495 a becomes N/2.

The subcarrier selection circuit 494 selects the intended subcarriers.

The phase offset adjustment circuit 495 b shifts the phase of the inputsubcarriers C0 to C7 in accordance with the passed group of subcarriersselected at the subcarrier selection circuit 494.

The value of phase rotation (amount of phase shift) performed at thephase offset adjustment circuit 495 b is −(α/2^(m))Π (radian). Theparameter α is a value determined according to the group of subcarriersto be passed and the parameter m and has a regularity shown in thefollowing Table 1. In the following table, C0 to C7 mean the subcarriersarranged from 0 Hz.

TABLE 1 Passed carrier m = 2 m = 1 m = 0 C0 α = 0 α = 0 α = 0 C4 α = 4C2 α = 2 α = 2 C6 α = 6 C1 α = 1 α = 1 α = 1 C5 α = 5 C3 α = 3 α = 3 C7α = 7

By providing multiple stages of filter and decimation circuits 495, a K(capital letter)=8, 16, 32, or other filter apparatus can be configured.In that case, the value of the phase rotation performed at the phaseoffset adjustment circuit 495 b of each stage becomes the value shown inthe following Table 2. Note that examples are shown for up to K=8 inTable 2.

TABLE 2 m 0 1 2 *** Rota- 0 C0 −0/2 π C0 −0/4 π C0 *** tion C2 C4 ***phase C4 −4/4 π C4 *** value/ C6 *** passed −2/2 π C2 −2/4 π C2 ***carrier C6 *** −6/4 π C6 *** *** -π C1 −1/2 π C1 −1/4 π C1 *** C3 C5 ***C5 −5/4 π C5 *** C7 *** −3/2 π C3 −3/4 π C3 *** C7 *** −7/4 π C7 *** ***

In the present embodiment, the value of the phase rotation at the phaseoffset adjustment circuit 495 b is 0 (rad) when passing even numbercarriers and Π(rad) when passing odd number carriers. Which phaserotation is applied is suitably indicated by a subcarrier selectioncircuit 404.

The adder circuit 495 c adds the subcarrier rotated in phase by thephase offset adjustment circuit 495 b and the subcarrier delayed at thesymbol delay circuit 495 a.

As a result, for example, when the subcarriers C0 to C7 are input to thefilter and decimation circuit 495, the filter and decimation circuit 495outputs the symbols of one of the subcarrier series designated at thesubcarrier selection circuit 494.

The frequency offset compensation and/or elimination circuit 493 in thefilter apparatus 49A of FIG. 13 is configured in the same way asillustrated in FIG. 9 in the same way as the frequency offsetcompensation and/or elimination circuit 493 of FIG. 12. The frequencyoffset compensation and/or elimination circuit 493 operates in the sameway as that of the frequency offset compensation and/or eliminationcircuits 48A and 48B of FIG. 8 explained above or the frequency offsetcompensation and/or elimination circuit 493 of FIG. 12.

The filter apparatus 49A illustrated in FIG. 13 performs decimation onthe frequency axis by the filter and decimation circuit 495 and halvesthe number of the output symbols. Accordingly, the signal processingafter that become simple and quick.

Third Embodiment of Filter Apparatus

FIG. 15 is a circuit diagram of a third embodiment of the filterapparatus illustrated in FIG. 11.

A filter apparatus 49B illustrated in FIG. 15 has a subcarrier selectioncircuit 494, a first filter and decimation circuit 495A, a second filterand decimation circuit 495B, and a frequency offset compensation and/orelimination circuit 493.

The filter apparatus 49B is obtained by replacing the filter anddecimation circuit 495 of the filter apparatus 49A illustrated in FIG.13 by the two filter and decimation circuits 495A and 495B provided inseries. Both of the filter and decimation circuits 495A and 495B havethe circuit configuration illustrated in FIG. 14. The first stage filterand decimation circuit 495A has m=0 and the second stage filter anddecimation circuit 495B has m=1. By applying these parameters m, asillustrated in FIG. 6, the amounts of delay in the filter and decimationcircuits 495A and 495B are defined.

The frequency offset compensation and/or elimination circuit 493 canemploy the same circuit configuration as that of the circuit illustratedin FIG. 9.

The value of the phase rotation (amount of phase shift) by the phaseoffset adjustment circuit 495 b is −(α/2^(m))Π (radian). The parameter αis determined according to the group of subcarriers to be passed and theparameter m and has the regularity shown in Table 1.

By providing multiple stages of the filter and decimation circuit 495, K(capital letter)=8, 16, 32, and other filter apparatuses can beconfigured. In that case, the value of the phase rotation at the phaseoffset adjustment circuit 495 b of each becomes the value shown in Table2.

In the present embodiment, the value of the phase rotation at the phaseoffset adjustment circuit 495 b is 0 (rad) when passing even numbercarriers and Π(rad) when passing odd number carriers. Which rotationphase is applied is suitably indicated by the subcarrier selectioncircuit 404.

The adder circuit 495 c adds the subcarrier rotated in phase at thephase offset adjustment circuit 495 b and the subcarrier delayed at thesymbol delay circuit 495 a.

As a result, for example, when the subcarriers C0 to C7 are input to thefilter and decimation circuit 495, the filter and decimation circuit 495outputs the symbols of any one subcarrier series designated at thesubcarrier selection circuit 494.

The filter apparatus 49B illustrated in FIG. 15 is provided with twofilter and decimation circuits 495A and 495B, so becomes the filterapparatus outputting any one of a group of four subcarriers. Namely, itis a circuit for outputting a signal deciminated to ¼ on the frequencyaxis.

In the present embodiment, the case where two filter and decimationcircuits 495A and 495B were connected in series was illustrated, but itis possible to connect them in a greater number of stages (m), forexample, three stages or four stages, demultiplex the signal to groupsof 2³, 2⁴, and 2^(m) subcarriers and pass one group of subcarriers amongthem. In that case, the regularity of the parameter m of each filter anddecimation circuit is similar to that of FIG. 4. Further, the value ofthe phase to be rotated is determined according to the regularity shownin Table 1 and Table 2.

Fourth Embodiment of Filter Apparatus

FIG. 16 is an example of a circuit of a fourth embodiment of the filterapparatus illustrated in FIG. 11.

A filter apparatus 49C has a multiplier 496, a pass subcarrier selectionsignal output circuit 497, a filter and decimation circuit 499, and asymbol rearrangement circuit 498.

The frequency offset of the symbol string to be input to the multiplier496 is the same as the frequency offset of the symbol string input tothe multiplier 481 of FIG. 9.

The pass subcarrier selection signal output circuit 497 outputs acomplex sine wave signal in accordance with the channel to be selectedto the multiplier 496 in the same way as the gyrator (oscillator) 482illustrated in FIG. 9 in order to eliminate the frequency offsetthereof.

The multiplier 496 multiplies the symbol series from the high frequencyreceiver circuit 42 and the complex sine wave signal output from thepass subcarrier selection signal output circuit 497. This operation iscarried out in order to impart a frequency offset to the symbols(subcarrier component) to be selected at the filter apparatus 49C in thesymbol series input to the filter apparatus 49C so that 0 Hz iscontained therein.

Accordingly, the pass subcarrier selection signal output circuit 497outputs the conjugate with the signal of the frequency of the amount ofthe subcarrier nearest to 0 Hz in the positive frequency direction amongthe subcarriers selected. The multiplier 496 multiplies the conjugatesignal and the input symbols and eliminates the frequency offset.

The filter and decimation circuit 499 will be explained next byreferring to FIG. 17.

FIG. 17 is an example of the circuit of the filter and decimationcircuit 499 illustrated in FIG. 16.

The filter and decimation circuit 499 is configured by the symbol delaycircuit 495 a and the adder circuit 495 c.

The circuit configuration of the filter and decimation circuit 499 isobtained by deleting the phase offset adjustment circuit 43 b and thesubtractor circuit 43 d from the branching circuit illustrated in FIG. 5and obtained by deleting the phase offset adjustment circuit 495 b fromthe circuit configuration of the filter and decimation circuit 495illustrated in FIG. 14.

The filter and decimation circuit 499 is a circuit for selecting andoutputting only the symbol series of the channels of the even numbersubcarriers from among the input subcarriers with a reference 0 Hz.

Also, the filter and decimation circuit 499 halves the number of outputsymbols. This means decimation was carried out on the frequency axis.

The symbol rearrangement circuit 498 rearranges the order of the groupof symbol (group of subcarriers) output from the filter and decimationcircuit 499 between the first half and second half and outputs only thesymbols of the second half as valid symbols.

Fifth Embodiment of Filter Apparatus

FIG. 18 is an example of the circuit of a fifth embodiment of the filterapparatus illustrated in FIG. 11.

A filter apparatus 49D has a multiplier 496, a channel selection signaloutput signal 497, first and second filter and decimation circuits 499Aand 499B, and a symbol rearrangement circuit 498.

The first and second filter and decimation circuits 499A and 499B areconfigured in the same way as that of the filter and decimation circuit499 explained by referring to FIG. 17.

The filter apparatus 49D is obtained by adding the second filter anddecimation circuit 499B to the filter apparatus 49C illustrated in FIG.16. By the addition of the filter and decimation circuit 499B, in thesame way as the two filter and decimation circuits 495A and 495Billustrated in FIG. 15, the passed carriers can be further restricted to½ from that of the filter apparatus 49C illustrated in FIG. 16.

The rest of the configuration is similar to that of the filter apparatus49C illustrated in FIG. 16.

Note that by connecting further filter and decimation circuits 499 inseries, for example, by connecting m stages in series, the passedcarriers can be restricted to ½^(m).

Fifth Embodiment of Receiving Apparatus

FIG. 19 is a view of the configuration of the receiving apparatus of afifth embodiment of the present invention.

The receiving apparatus 40D has a receiving antenna 41, a high frequencyreceiver circuit 42, a switch circuit 50, a buffer circuit 52, a filterapparatus 49, an FFT and/or descrambling means 44, and a not shown bitextraction circuit 45 and decoding circuit 46 illustrated in FIG. FIG.1B.

The high frequency receiver circuit 42 operates in the same way as thatdescribed above.

The switch circuit 50 outputs the signal of the high frequency receivercircuit 42 to the filter apparatus 49 in an initial state.

During this, the buffer circuit 52 continues to store the signal of thehigh frequency receiver circuit 42 until all single symbol amounts ofthe signal are transferred to the filter apparatus 49.

The filter apparatus 49 is the filter apparatus 49 shown as in the abovevarious types of embodiments, extracts only part of the subcarriersdesignated from among the signal input from the high frequency receivercircuit 42 after passing through the switch circuit 50, for example,only the signal of the even number carriers, decimates it on thefrequency axis, and outputs the selection signal thereof to the FFTand/or descrambling means 44.

The FFT and/or descrambling means 44 is configured as the circuit forperforming the FFT processing for a number of subcarriers smaller thanthe number of the subcarriers received at the high frequency receivercircuit 42. Namely, the FFT and/or descrambling means 44 is configuredsmall in size and so that high speed operation is possible. After theFFT processing etc. in the FFT and/or descrambling means 44, theprocessing in the bit extraction circuit 45, decoding circuit 46, etc.illustrated in FIG. 1A is carried out.

After all single symbol amounts of the signal are transferred from thehigh frequency receiver circuit 42 to the filter apparatus 49, thebuffer circuit 52 starts the transmission of the signal to the filterapparatus 49 through the switch circuit 50.

The switch circuit 50 switches so as to apply the signal from the buffercircuit 52 to the filter apparatus 49 after the transfer of the signalof the high frequency receiver circuit 42 to the filter apparatus 49 isterminated.

The filter apparatus 49 extracts the signal passing the signal componentwhich becomes necessary in the present communication among the signalcomponents which were not passed previously, for example, the odd numbercarriers, and applies the same to the FFT and/or descrambling means 44.

The FFT and/or descrambling means 44 performs the FFT processing on thesignal input again to extract the received symbols and makes thecircuits after the bit extraction circuit 45 perform processing.

By employing the circuit configuration illustrated in FIG. 19,extraction of received symbols becomes possible by a circuit having asmaller scale than that of the FFT circuit originally required for theFFT processing for the symbols received at the high frequency receivercircuit 42. Namely, when the circuit configuration of FIG. 19 isemployed, the circuit scale of the FFT and/or descrambling means 44 canbe made smaller.

As the circuit configuration of the receiving apparatus illustrated inFIG. 19, the case where the received symbols were halved wasillustrated, but by further reducing the passed carriers in the filterapparatus 49, it can be modified to reduce them to ¼, ⅛, etc. As aresult, the circuit scale of the FFT and/or descrambling means 44becomes further smaller.

Sixth Embodiment of Receiving Apparatus

FIG. 20 is a view of the configuration of the receiving apparatus of asixth embodiment of the present invention.

A receiving apparatus 40E has a receiving antenna 41, a high frequencyreceiver circuit 42, a first filter apparatus 49A, a second filterapparatus 49B, a switch circuit 50, a buffer circuit 52, an FFT and/ordescrambling means 44, and the bit extraction circuit 45 and decodingcircuit 46 illustrated in FIG. 1B but the illustration of which beingomitted.

The high frequency receiver circuit 42 operates in the same way as thatdescribed above.

The filter apparatuses 49A and 49B can employ the circuit configurationsof the various types of filter apparatuses 49 explained above. The firstfilter apparatus 49A for example extracts the signal of the even numbercarriers, while the second filter apparatus 49B for example extracts thesignal of the odd number carriers. Namely, in the present embodiment,the filter apparatuses 49A and 49B decimate the symbols to ½.

The switch circuit 50 outputs the signal of the even number carriersoutput from the filter apparatus 49A to the FFT and/or descramblingmeans 44 in the initial state.

During that time, the signal of the odd number carriers selected at thefilter apparatus 49B is stored in the buffer circuit 52.

The buffer circuit 52 continues to stores the signal from the filterapparatus 4B until all of the signal to be applied to the FFT and/ordescrambling means 44 extracted at the filter apparatus 49A istransferred to the FFT and/or descrambling means 44.

The FFT and/or descrambling means 44 is configured as the circuit forthe FFT processing for a number of subcarriers smaller than the numberof the subcarriers received at the high frequency receiver circuit 42output from the filter apparatus 49A. Namely, the FFT and/ordescrambling means 44 is configured to be small in size and so that highspeed operation is possible. After the FFT processing etc. in the FFTand/or descrambling means 44, the processing in the bit extractioncircuit 45, decoding circuit 46, etc. illustrated in FIG. 1A are carriedout.

After all of the signal of the even number carriers from the filterapparatus 49A is transferred to the FFT and/or descrambling means 44,the buffer circuit 52 transfer the signal stored in the FFT and/ordescrambling means 44 through the switch circuit 50 to the FFT and/ordescrambling means 44.

The switch circuit 50 switches so as to apply the signal from the buffercircuit 52 to the FFT and/or descrambling means 44 when the signaltransfer from the filter apparatus 49A to the FFT and/or descramblingmeans 44 is terminated.

The filter apparatus 49B and the buffer circuit 52 create the signalpassing the signal component which will become necessary in the presentcommunication among the signal components which were not previouslypassed, for example the odd number carriers, and apply the same to theFFT and/or descrambling means 44.

The FFT and/or descrambling means 44 performs the FFT processing for thesignals input again to extract the received symbols and makes thecircuits after the bit extraction circuit 45 perform the processing.

By employing the circuit configuration of the receiving apparatusillustrated in FIG. 20, extraction of the received symbols becomespossible by a circuit having a smaller scale than that of the FFTcircuit originally required for the FFT processing for the symbolsreceived at the high frequency receiver circuit 42.

Namely, when the circuit configuration of FIG. 20 is employed, thecircuit scale of the FFT and/or descrambling means 44 can be madesmaller.

As the circuit configuration illustrated in FIG. 20, the case where thereceived symbols were decimated to half was illustrated, but by furtherreducing the passed carriers in the filter apparatuses 49A and 49B, theycan be further reduced to ¼, ⅛, etc. As a result, the circuit scale ofthe FFT and/or descrambling means 44 becomes further smaller.

The communication system, transmitting apparatus (transmitter) 30,receiving apparatus (receiver) 40, and the signal componentdemultiplexing apparatus and filter apparatus configuring part of thereceiving apparatus (receiver) 40 are not limited to the configurationsexplained above and may be modified in various ways. Alternatively, theabove embodiments can be appropriately combined.

A wireless communication system was illustrated above as an embodimentof the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to awireless communication system. It may also be applied to a wiredcommunication system.

Summarizing the effects of the invention, according to the presentinvention, a signal component demultiplexing apparatus capable ofadequately demultiplexing a multi-carrier modulated signal can beprovided.

Further, a signal component demultiplexing apparatus for demultiplexinga signal to a group of 2^(c) signals © is any integer) from one group ofinput multi-carrier modulated signals can be provided.

Further, a filter apparatus for selecting specific one output group ofsignals from among one group of input multi-carrier modulated signalscan be provided.

Further, a suitable receiving apparatus having the above signalcomponent demultiplexing apparatus an be provided.

The receiving apparatus of the present invention can achieve a smallcircuit scale of FFT and further high speed FFT processing.

According to the present invention, a suitable receiving apparatushaving the above filter apparatus can be provided.

In the receiving apparatus of the present invention, the circuit scaleof the FFT can be made smaller and the FFT processing can be carried outat a high speed.

Further, a communication system wherein the transmitting apparatus forthe multi-carrier modulation and the above receiving apparatus cooperatecan be provided.

Further, a communication method for multi-carrier modulation anddemodulation can be provided.

While the invention has been described by reference to specificembodiments chosen for purposes of illustration, it should be apparentthat numerous modifications could be made thereto by those skilled inthe art without departing from the basic concept and scope of theinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A signal component demultiplexing apparatushaving a plurality of branching circuits connected in stages andhierarchically by a branching method or demultiplexing a subgroup ofsignals from among a group of multi-carrier modulated signals, each ofthe plurality of branching circuits comprising: symbol delaying meansfor delaying an input group of signals by N/2^((m+1)) symbols; phaseoffset adjusting means for shifting a phase of the input group ofsignals by −_(n)(k/2^(m)) radians with a reference of 0 Hz; adding meansfor adding an output signal of the symbol delaying means and an outputsignal of the phase offset adjusting means to calculate one symbolstring alternately positioned on a frequency axis in a multiplexedsignal input to a signal selecting and outputting means; and subtractingmeans for subtracting the output signal of the phase offset adjustingmeans from the output signal of the symbol delaying means to calculatean other symbol string alternately positioned on the frequency axis inthe multiplexed signal input to the signal selecting an outputtingmeans, wherein m is a parameter indicating a position of a stage of eachof plurality of the branching circuits; N is a number of symbolsexisting within one modulation time; and k is a parameter indicatingthat a group of signals having a frequency offset of a subcarrier isinput with the reference 0 Hz.
 2. A receiving apparatus for multiplexcommunication based on multi-carrier modulation having subcarriers of aplurality of channels cyclically arranged, comprising: receiving meansfor receiving a group of signals; a signal component demultiplexingapparatus having a plurality of branching circuits connected in stagesand hierarchically by a branching method, each of the plurality ofbranching circuits provided with: symbol delaying means for delaying aninput group of signals by N/2(k/2^(−m)) symbols; phase offset adjustingmeans for shifting a phase of the input group of signals by−_(n)(k/2^(−m)) radians with a reference of 0 Hz; adding means foradding an output signal of the symbol delaying means and an outputsignal of the phase offset adjusting means to calculate one symbolstring alternately positioned on a frequency axis in a multiplexedsignal input to a signal selecting and outputting means; and subtractingmeans for subtracting the output signal of the phase offset adjustingmeans from the output signal of the symbol delaying means to calculatean other symbol string alternately positioned on the frequency axis inthe multiplexed signal input to the signal selecting and outputtingmeans; orthogonal transforming means for orthogonally transforming thegroup of signals demultiplexed by the signal component demultiplexingapparatus; and decoding means for decoding the orthogonally transformedgroup of signals wherein m is a parameter indicating a position of stageof each of plurality of the branching circuits; N is a number of symbolsexisting within one modulation time; and k is a parameter indicatingthat a group of signals having a frequency offset of a subcarrier isinput with the reference 0 Hz.
 3. A communication apparatus having atransmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus in multiplexcommunication based on multi-carrier modulation having subcarriers of aplurality of channels cyclically a ranged, the transmitting apparatushaving: encoding means for independently encoding information of theplurality of channels; signal point arranging means for arranging signalpoints by modulating the encoded information based on a predeterminedmodulation method; signal multiplexing means for multiplexing theplurality of signal point-arranged signals cyclically on a time axis;inverse orthogonal transforming means for inversely orthogonallytransforming the multiplexed signal; and transmitting means fortransmitting the inversely orthogonally transformed information; and thereceiving apparatus having: receiving means for receiving thetransmitted group of signals; signal component demultiplexing means forselecting and demultiplexing the received group of signals; orthogonaltransforming means for orthogonally transforming the selected anddemultiplexed signal; and decoding means for decoding the orthogonallytransformed information, wherein the signal component demultiplexingmeans is configured by a plurality of branching circuits connected instages and hierarchically by a branching method, each of the pluralityof branching circuits including: symbol delaying means for delaying aninput group of signals by N/2^((m+1)) symbols; phase offset adjustingmeans for shifting a phase of the input group of signals by−_(n)(k/2^(m)) radians with a reference of 0 Hz; adding means for addingan output signal of the symbol delaying means and an output signal ofthe phase offset adjusting means to calculate one symbol stringalternately positioned on a frequency axis in a multiplexed signal inputto a signal selecting and outputting means; and subtracting means forsubtracting the output signal of the phase offset adjusting means fromthe output signal of the symbol delaying means to calculate an othersymbol string alternately positioned on the frequency axis in themultiplexed signal input to the signal selecting and outputting means,wherein m is a parameter indicating a position of a stage of each of theplurality of branching circuits; N is a number of symbols existingwithin one modulation time; and k is a parameter indicating that a groupof signals having a frequency offset of a subcarrier is input with thereference of 0 Hz.
 4. The communication apparatus as set forth in claim3, wherein the signal multiplexing means in the transmitting apparatusmultiplexes the plurality of signal point-arranged signals whileshifting a frequency for each of the plurality of channels atpredetermined subcarriers.
 5. The communication apparatus as set forthin claim 3, wherein the modulation in the signal point arranging meansuses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).
 6. Thecommunication apparatus as set forth in claim 3, wherein the inverseorthogonal transform processing means in the transmitting apparatusperforms inverse Fourier transform processing; and the orthogonaltransform processing means in the receiver performs Fourier transformprocessing.
 7. A communication method comprising the steps of: anencoding and transmitting step including the substeps of: independentlyencoding information of a plurality of channels; arranging signal pointsby modulating the encoded information based on a predeterminedmodulation method; multiplexing a plurality of signal point-arrangedsignals cyclically on a time axis; inversely orthogonally transforming amultiplexed signal resulting from the multiplexing substep; andtransmitting the orthogonally transformed signal; and a receiving anddecoding step including the substeps of: receiving the transmittedsignal; selecting and outputting the signal of one of the plurality ofchannels from among the received multiplexed signal after the orthogonaltransformation; orthogonally transforming the selected signal; anddecoding the orthogonally transformed signal, wherein the signalselection in selecting and outputting step comprises the substeps of:giving a delay of N/2^((m+1)) symbols; shifting a phase by _(n)(k/2^(m))radians; and performing branched and in stages a procedure of one ofadding the symbol delayed signal and the phase shifted signal tocalculate one symbol string alternately located on a frequency axis inthe input multiplexed signal and subtracting the phase shifted signalfrom the symbol delayed signal to calculate an other symbol stringalternately located on the frequency axis in the input multiplexedsignal, wherein m is a parameter indicating a position of a stage of abranching circuit; N is a number of symbols existing within onemodulation time; and k is a parameter indicating that a group of signalshaving a frequency offset of a subcarrier is input with a reference of 0Hz.